Texas A&M
A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI
Islanders Upset Texas A&M, 82-80
Dec 13, 2003 | Men's Basketball
December 13, 2003
Travis Bailey scored 22 points and Brian Evans added 21 as Texas A&M-Corpus Christi stunned Texas A&M in an 82-80 victory Saturday before 4,544 at Reed Arena.
Texas A&M (3-3) lost its third straight game, its first at home. Freshman point guard Acie Law led four A&M scorers in double figures with 15 points and five assists.
The Islanders (4-3) jumped all over the Aggies in the opening minutes of the second half, going on a 16-2 run to take a 51-41 lead with 13 minutes remaining. Travis Bailey scored 10 points in the stretch, sparking the Islanders offense.
With a double-digit lead in hand, the Islanders answered every A&M surge. Anderson pulled in an offensive rebound for the Aggies and put it back in the hoop only to have Thomas Bailey chase down his own miss and drive it back in on the other end of the floor. Antoine Wright slammed it home over the Islanders defense and the Islanders were unfazed, hitting an easy 3-pointer.
Texas A&M went over 14 minutes in the second half before making consecutive baskets as TAMU-CC led by as much as 13 while shooting over 70-percent in the first 15 minutes of the second half. The Aggies broke the stretch by scoring seven straight and trimming the Islanders lead to 66-60 with five minutes remaining.
The Aggies trailed by 10 again with 1:19 remaining before scoring nine points in less than 25 seconds, six by Jesse King, to cut the lead to 75-74 with 42 seconds remaining, but the Evans and Travis Bailey combined for 7-8 from the free throw line in the final 40 seconds to hold off the Aggies.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas A&M Corpus Christi Guard Brian Evans: "For one, this will give us a lot of respect. We lost to some teams early and this helps us. In the Baylor game, we didn't execute. The games that we've lost have been close. We could easily be 6-0. In the second half we came in only down 2. We kept our team going and we really came out and tried to execute."
Texas A&M Corpus Christi Guard Travis Bailey: " It always seems when the game is on the line, the clock slowly ticks away. We came in knowing that we had a good chance to win. We came in prepared, we executed well, and we took care of business. Any win is a good win. Whether it is division I or division III, a win is a win. We knew we could get the job done tonight. We just had to execute and make free throws down the stretch."
Texas A&M Corpus Christi Head Coach Ronnie Arrow: "You guys got to see a heck of a game. I was really happy that Melvin (Watkins) would play us. I really appreciate him playing us. He does a good job. He's got some great young kids. I was happy for our guys. We had two close losses and tonight we finally put it together. I thought us changing defenses got us the lead in the second half. I think the difference in the game was transition buckets. I told the guys this was the biggest win in the history of our program. This was special. They are our mother school so this is great. We started this program five years ago with nothing, no basketballs, no jerseys, nothing."
Texas A&M Head Coach Melvin Watkins: "It's been like that the last three games (referring to coming out flat in the second half). Coming out in the second half, we have been running in mud. They just took it to us. Defensively we couldn't get stops. We have to get stops. We have not found a way to do that. We have geared our whole practice around defense, and we aren't getting our return. We are supposed to beat them. This is a game we have to win. We have to come out and get this win. With the future competition we have on our schedule, we have to win these games. We have to make sure our kids don't throw in the towel for the whole season. We have to find a way to get tougher, and that toughness will help our defense. When we needed a stop we couldn't get it."
